WHEN campaigners talk about the rainforest, people think of trees in the tropics. It is often not realised that Scotland has its own rainforest which is just as important but even more rare – so rare that it is in danger of being lost forever. That’s the view of environmental experts who have joined together to launch a report today outlining the perilous state of this fragile woodland, one of the last remnants of Europe’s original rainforest.

The new report reveals that there is as little as 30,325 hectares of rainforest left in Scotland. The remnant oak, birch, ash, native pine and hazel woodlands are small, fragmented and isolated from each other, “over mature”, often show little or no regeneration and are at risk of disappearing altogether.

In addition, almost all of the rainforest is over grazed to a degree that will prevent it from re-growing and one in every five sites has been planted with exotic conifer plantations which lower their value as rainforest habitat.

Ash dieback disease threatens the future of the northern and western most ash woods and invasive rhododendron can be found in 40% of rainforest sites where it threatens to choke the woodlands and prevent the distinctive rainforest flora from surviving.

To make matters even worse, climate change and air pollution pose a huge threat to the rainforest and the rare plants that make it so special. “Scotland’s rainforest is just as lush and just as important as tropical rainforest, but is even rarer,” explained Adam Harrison of Woodland Trust Scotland.

“It is found along the west coast and on the inner isles and is a unique habitat of ancient native oak, birch, ash, pine and hazel woodlands and includes open glades and river gorges. Our rainforest relies on mild, wet and clean air coming in off the Atlantic, and is garlanded with a spectacular array of lichens, fungi, mosses, liverworts and ferns. Many are nationally and globally rare and some are found nowhere else in the world.”

A good example of this habitat, he said, could contain more than 200 different species of bryophytes, such as the deceptive featherwort and the greater fork moss, and more than 150 different species of lichen such as tree lungwort and golden specklebelly. Chris Ellis from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh where the launch is taking place, said: “This habitat was once found all along Europe’s Atlantic coast, but it has dwindled over thousands of years due to clearance and air pollution from steady industrialisation. The west coast of Scotland has suffered less from these pressures and is now one of the last strongholds of Europe’s rainforest.”

However, Gordon Gray Stephens, of the Community Woodlands Association, said it isn’t too late to act. “Our vision for regenerating Scotland’s rainforest is clear: we need to make it larger, in better condition, and with improved connections between people and woods. Coming together as an Alliance can help to make this happen.”

The partners in the Atlantic Woodland Alliance will now work to implement a strategy to save and expand the remaining rainforest.

They say a bigger, more vigorous and better connected rainforest will allow wildlife to spread out and will be more resilient to threats and environmental changes, and better able to survive and thrive in the long term.

The Alliance believes this this will also contribute to Scotland’s sustainable development and economic growth as sites will be visited more, become more productive and will be better championed and supported by businesses, local communities, charities and government agencies.

More partners are sought to join the Alliance with the aim of working together, sharing ideas and experience, and developing and funding innovative projects to save Scotland’s rainforest.

Atlantic Woodland Alliance members own or manage two fifths of Scotland’s best rainforest sites – most of which are open to the public. Some of the best include Crinan Wood, Argyll; Inversnaid Nature Reserve at Loch Lomond; Balmacara Estate at Kyle of Lochalsh; and Beinn Eighe and Loch Maree Islands National Nature Reserve in Wester Ross.

The Alliance is made up of Butterfly Conservation Scotland, the Community Woodlands Association, Forestry and Land Scotland, Future Woodlands Scotland, John Muir Trust, Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, the National Trust for Scotland, Plantlife Scotland, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, RSPB Scotland, Scottish Forestry, Scottish Land and Estates, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Trees for Life and the Woodland Trust Scotland.